The Junction Boys on ESPN

[Phil C]

I saw the ESPN movie The Junction Boys the other night about Coach Bryant's Texas A&M football camp in 1954. Of course movies are not always completely historically accurate and some things are changed. I noticed three items of interest during the movie. One of them at the start when Coach Bryant seems to put down the Aggies because they were 4-5-1 the year before. Ironically one of the Aggie wins was against Kentucky (7-6) at Kentucky the prior year where Coach Bryant had coached. Another item is that they said the Aggies hadn't beaten Texas in such a long time ( I think about 13 years) but yet in 1951 the Aggies beat Texas 22-21. And last but not least and maybe it is an inhouse joke but at the end on the bus trip back to college station the Aggie trainer Smoky Harper is wearing an orange cap with a big T on it!! I don't need to tell you what college team would have that (and no I am not referring to Tennessee :) ). What do you all think of that? By the way I am neutral when it comes to the Aggies and Longhorns so I am just putting in some observations for comments.

[kaorder1999]

good observations!!!

[Jimbotex40]

i didnt see it yet, but all i can say is whoop!

i recently decided on goin to A&M...couldnt deny that school spirit.

[Old Cardinal]

An ole friend of mine Bill Godwin was on that "Bataan Death March" like Junction trip. He went down with a major heat stroke on the last day, and almost died. You young football players don't realize that even in high school up into the early 1960s Coaches, at practice, would hit you with a big paddle if you missed a block, or a tackle, or jumped off sides. I have seen many times, Coach Smith, of the Wallace High Dragons, giving players licks with that big strong arm of his ON THE SIDELINES DURING THE GAME! Boy, today some of the parents would come down and bust a Coach in the mouth, that did that to their kid during the game. We also did not wear facemask or mouthpeices back then-that's why there are so many ugly ole men today!

[Phil C]

A friend of mine had a tape of the movie and let me review it today and the color on his tv was better than mine and the cap was probably not orange but maroon after all so I apologize for my error even though I wonder why the cap just had a T on it instead of the T and A&M but maybe that was the way it was in 1954. But it is still strange that at the first part of the movie Coach Bryant was complaining how bad the players were but yet they were the same players that beat his Kentucky team 7 -6 the year before at Kentucky and the year (1952) before that Kentucky only beat the Aggies by a field goal in College Station. But of course movies are not always acturate. I know one old movie called The SugarLand Express which implied that Pleasanton was just a few miles from the Texas - Mexico Border which we know isn't accurate. Coach Bryant had great sucess at Alabama but in bowl games he didn't do too good against Texas teams because he played Texas four times and lost three times and tied once and of course he lost to the Aggies in the 1968 Cotton Bowl 20 - 16.